“The fateful moment is at hand when the tunic of Christ shall be rent again, when the bonds of Saint Peter shall be broken, the catholic unity dissolved”-Archbishop of Worms.
Adrianople, November, 1201
God, thought Theodore Lascaris, could work in mysterious ways. After the installation of the Hohenstaufens in the City, he had tried to set up a state in Nicaea from which to oppose the Germans. It had, it would seem, turned out to be futile.
For one thing, the Emperor’s pledge to restore the Empire’s finances by confiscating the estates of nobles in Anatolia and Thrace, and cutting down on imperial expenditures, had won him favor in the city. But even while doing that, he had dispatched an army to Asia Minor, to subdue Theodore’s “band of rebels”. Not even pausing to sop, Phillip’s army had continued to Nicaea, and Theodore’s hopes were dashed.
It was then that Phillip had offered him an interesting position. He could be the sebastocrator of Thessalonica; away from his center of power, Theodore would serve the Emperor by defeating the Bulgar hordes, who had been sent by Kalojan against the Empire. Theodore looked over his Sicilian and Greek troops. Good men. Better than the Bulgars, for certain. And if he won, well, who knew what the future held for a victorious general of Byzantium?
It would be said, after the battle, that the Pope called Kalojan King of the Bulgars. After the battle of Adrianople, Kalojan would be known as King of the dead[ 23].
Damietta, May, 1202
Richard laughed. “Henry thinks he can upstage me, can he? He may claim Byzantium and Jerusalem, but I shall lead the Christian armies against the capital of the Saracens, and sack their idolatrous cities of Mecca and Medina.”
Blondel, Richard’s favorite minstrel since his youth, refrained from rolling his eyes. Richard’s obsession was getting to be a bit much. Granted, Henry’s conquest of the Holy Land and Constantinople, and Sicily, was due in part to Richard’s ransom, but if he didn’t start paying more attention to things, he would end up with an arrow through his chest and a grave in desert.
Phillip also agreed. “I’ll grant you that Damietta seems ripe to fall within five months [24], but what then? Who will rule Egypt?”
Richard paused. That was, actually, a very good question. He’d be damned if he gave it to Henry. Quite literally, given the Pope’s new edicts.
Cremona, September, 1202
As usual with Henry, everything had come together rather nicely. The Council had not met in Rome or Constantinople, but rather in the Ghilbelline city of Cremona. It’s goals were nothing short of world shaking; the removal of Innocent and the reunion of Faith.
Unfortunately for Henry, they wouldn’t shut up about the Filioque. It wasn’t a question of whether or no the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son as whether or not its use was legitimate. The Greeks cited the Council of Ephesus which said that no one could compose a face other than that defined at Nicaea, but the Latins held it was a clarification, and that the Greeks had already changed the doctrine.
It had taken three months and the placement of troops outside their chambers to have them agree that the Latin formula meant the same thing as the Greek where it was now agreed to proceed from the Father through the Son.
Then the issue of the Pope had come up. Henry, this time, had favored the Greek position. The Pope was first among equals in the patriarch’s ranks, and the Emperor was above them all. The Greeks would recognize Latin liturgy in the west; the Latins would recognize Greek liturgy in the Holy Land, but there Latin Liturgy would be used by the Kingdom. It was, thought Henry, a rather effective solution. The Council also considered the Donation of Constantine to be a sham, and declared that Sicily was part of the Kingdom of Italy.
The other issue was that of Innocent. The problem was that there was no procedure for ousting a Pope for unfitness; the ground used, then, was that Innocent had been found guilty of blasphemy, murder , simony, sorcery, failure to fats on fast days, heresy, and collusion with the infidel in supporting revolts in Sicily and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Some of those charges were even true.
The Council, then, decreed that the Pope was deposed. The new Pope was to be chosen within a year; Henry was hoping for a French candidate, so as to woo Phillip to his side. Phillip, actually, was the only serious king who had sent delegates outside the Empire, although as observers only.
Not everyone agreed, of course. One of the French ones, from Paris, was especially annoying.*But what,” said the Bishop, “will you do with with Innocent?”
Henry smiled. “I leave it to men of God to decide what must be done in the service of God.” Henry thought of the Byzantine practice of eye gouging. Yes, that would do it.
The Lombards might prove difficult, but they could wait. He would offer them concessions to make them at least remain neutral, and deal with them when the time was ripe. Rome was not built in a day, after all. Rebuilding it would be Henry’s task until the day he died.
[23] Okay, a brief digression. Three powers thought they had the right to create kings. The Pope, the Emperor, and the Baesilus. The Baesilus and the Emperor are now the same dynasty, and the Pope was hoping that Kalojan would be able to defeat Phillip and unseat him, but Phillip, aware of the Pope’s negotiations (for, after all, Henry had considered giving Kalojan a crown) is able to sic Theodore on him. Demetrios is probably ecstatic that the Lascarids are in the game, but hey.
[24] Damietta is weaker than in the Fifth Crusade due in part to the fact that the Ayuibids haven’t had time to prepare for war, consolidate their holdings, and fortify the Nile. Having said that, the city is still no walkover.
